Planning a Trip to the Interior

44.1 Basic Sentences — At the Beach

John White, a girl friend, José, and Carmen are at the beach.

Dialogue

English	Spanish
I haven’t been back to this beach since last summer.	Yo no había vuelto a esta playa desde el verano pasado.
The sand here is very clean.	La arena aquí es muy limpia.
The ocean is a beautiful blue today.	Hoy tiene el mar un azul precioso.
Shall we go in now? I wonder how the water is.	¿Nos metemos ya? ¿Cómo estará el agua?
It’s been pretty hot! It should be warm.	Ha hecho mucho calor. Debe estar tibia.
But first of all, get in a group so I can take your picture.	Pero antes que nada, pónganse en grupo para retratarlos.
But you didn’t tell me you were going to take pictures.	Pero no me habías dicho que ibas a tomar fotos.
It’s my favorite pastime. Didn’t you know?	Es mi pasatiempo favorito. ¿No lo sabías?
I brought two rolls in black and white.	Traje dos rollos en blanco y negro.
I don’t want my picture taken in a bathing suit.	Yo en traje de baño no me retrato.
Don’t be silly; come here.	No seas tonta y ven acá.
Where do you send them to be developed?	¿Dónde las mandas a revelar?
I do it myself.	Yo mismo lo hago.
Put the camera and the towels in the shade and let’s swim a while.	Pon la cámara con las toallas a la sombra y vamos a nadar un rato.
Just how do you think we can! The tide’s too strong. Don’t you see those waves?	¡Cómo crees que vamos a poder! La marea está muy fuerte. ¿No ves qué olas?
Do you see what a coward Carmen is?	¿Se dan Uds. cuenta de lo cobarde que es Carmen?
Me a coward? Everybody in the water.	¿Cobarde yo? Al agua todos.

Vocabulary

English	Spanish
to have (past)	había (haber)
returned	vuelto (volver)
the beach	la playa
the summer	el verano
the sand	la arena
the sea, ocean	el mar
pretty, beautiful	precioso
to go into	meterse
it will be	estará (estar)
before anything, first	antes que nada
to put oneself into	ponerse
so I can	para
to take a picture	retratar
said	dicho (decir)
you had said	habías dicho
the pastime	el pasatiempo
the roll	el rollo
the bathing suit	el traje de baño
to have one’s picture taken	retratarse
foolish, silly	tonto
to develop	revelar
the camera	la cámara
the towel	la toalla
the shade	la sombra
to swim	nadar
the tide	la marea
strong	fuerte
the wave	la ola
to realize, become aware of	darse cuenta
cowardly	cobarde

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44.10 Notes on the Basic Sentences

(1) Spanish employs the past tense of the perfect construction where English uses the present perfect.

(2) The question ¿Nos metemos ya? employs a simple present where English uses ‘shall.’ The future estará in ¿Cómo estará el agua? is the ‘future of probability’—‘How will the water be?’ means ‘I wonder how the water is.’

(3) Para here means ‘so I can’ in this frequent context.

(4) The Spanish past perfect habías dicho corresponds with simple past in English.

(5) In Spanish, emphasis is achieved by shifting word order to place the subject early and the verb late.

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44.2 Drills and Grammar

44.21.1 Comparison of Equality

Comparisons of equality use tanto(s)/tanta(s) with nouns, tanto with verbs, and tan with modifiers. The second term is always introduced by como.

English	Spanish
She has as much money as I.	Ella tiene tanta plata como yo.
I have as many suitcases as trunks.	Yo tengo tantas maletas como baúles.
Money? I earn as much as he does.	¿Dinero? Gano tanto como él.
Today I worked as much as yesterday.	Hoy trabajé tanto como ayer.
She didn’t talk as much as I thought.	Ella no habló tanto como yo creía.
This base is not as modern as the one we visited yesterday.	Esta base no es tan moderna como la que visitamos ayer.
You don’t live as far away as I, do you?	Ud. no vive tan lejos como yo, ¿verdad?

44.21.2 Exclamatory Expressions

The comparative of either inequality or equality may be used to heighten the adjective in an exclamatory expression.

English	Spanish
What a terrific bullfight!	¡Qué corrida tan fenomenal! / ¡Qué corrida más fenomenal!
What a long hall!	¡Qué pasillo tan largo!
What beautiful cloth!	¡Qué tela más linda!

44.21.3 Irregular -do Forms

Common irregular past participles: morir → muerto; poner → puesto; suponer → supuesto; volver → vuelto; disolver → disuelto; escribir → escrito; romper → roto; ver → visto; abrir → abierto; hacer → hecho; decir → dicho

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44.4 Readings

44.41 Life in Surlandia — Una Carrera Panamericana de Automóviles

A reading about the Pan-American car race.

44.42 Features — Los Problemas del Transporte en Latinoamérica: Transporte Marítimo y Líneas Aéreas

A reading about maritime transport and airlines in Latin America.